


The Curse of Hetepu

by Bittercape (bittercape)



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Archaeology, Curses, Humor, M/M, Mystery, Pining, Romance, Trans Commander Barnes, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26182945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bittercape/pseuds/Bittercape
Summary: Oscar Wilde notices something interesting in one of the local Cairo papers: a series of deaths being linked to a potential tomb curse. He sends Commander Barnes to investigate. He is accompanied by Edward Keystone, who has been working at the archaeological dig together with his beloved Tjelvar Stornsnasson, and, unbeknownst to Barnes, his own ex-boyfriend Howard Carter.Edward and Tjelvar are mutually pining in a manner obvious to everyone but themselves, each believing to be unworthy of their beloved. Bets are running high throughout the site on if, and when, they will resolve matters and confess their love. Barnes and Carter have left a tumultuous relationship behind, which ended in a way that was painful to them both, and the awkwardness between them is palpable. Will they be able to resolve matters before a potential murderer takes mercy on everyone and murders one (or both) of them?In addition to their own emotional turmoil, these four men try to solve the mystery - is it a creative murderer? Or a new type of tomb curse? - without having to call for Wilde to help. The jealousy! (Carter) The indignity! (Tjelvar) The embarrassment! (Barnes) Who’s Wilde again? (Edward)
Relationships: Commander James Barnes/Howard Carter (Rusty Quill Gaming), Edward Keystone/Tjelvar Stornsnasson, Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde
Comments: 39
Kudos: 46
Collections: Rusty Quill Big Bang 2020





	1. In which Wilde is bored, until he is not.

Oscar Wilde was in his office. For once he was just pretending to work. The screens on his windows were shut, only letting narrow stripes of light in, and the thick walls kept the heat outside. In the semi-darkness the cool air was too comfortable to swap for the dusty heat of Cairo. What with Zolf being off on business of his own, all the company he had to look forward to was boring Harlequin agents who were either former enemies or green recruits. Or he could contact Saira and, if he were lucky, endure the slightly uncomfortable formality of the al-Tahans. None of these prospects were even remotely tempting, so Oscar had no plans of moving from his office until sundown made the outside bearable. He hadn’t read the latest reports yet, but without the urgency of war, it was far more tempting to take a nap on the sofa he had installed for just that purpose. Or rather, one of the purposes. A sofa is, after all, useful for many things.

He didn’t really sleep, but he relaxed on the sofa and watched the stripes of sunlight move slowly over the tiled floors. It had been far too long since he’d been this lazy, but currently, he felt like he could learn to enjoy it again. Years of working far too hard on too little sleep and in constant, gnawing worry had taken their toll, and Oscar was grateful he had lost much of his former vanity. He pulled on a lock of hair to study the grey streaks, but it was difficult to see properly in the darkened room. No matter. Maybe he could retire. Maybe he could go back to writing. Something to discuss with Zolf, when he got back, if this mood continued. 

He judged he’d been half-dozing for about an hour, by the movement of the sunlight, when he was roused by a knock on the door. Hard won experience made him draw his slim, elegant dagger and keep it ready when he opened the door, but it was just one of Curie’s runners with the newspapers. Oscar tipped him a few silver coins, nearly as much as Curie paid the boy per day, but a small price to pay for the loyalty of a potential spy, should he need one down the line.

Oscar poured himself a drink, just a bit of gin with a lot of sparkling water from the cold box, and settled back behind his desk. He had gone through the imported papers (chaos, devastation, rebuilding efforts) and was halfway through the local Cairo paper when his eyebrows rose up in an uncharacteristic display of surprise. Well, well, well. This was far more interesting than the current business in the Harlequin ranks. And with such a promising collection of people, too. His mouth curled in a crooked smile as he reached for a quill and a fresh sheet of paper.


	2. In which Barnes meets a vision of beauty, gets his first glimpse of Hetepu, and sees Howard Carter for the first time in many moons

When Barnes came into the courtyard at the temple of Apollo, he only knew he was looking for a man named Edward Keystone, who was supposedly training the newest acolytes in combat techniques. The description had seemed unrealistic, so he wasn’t prepared for the actual epitome of male beauty standing in the sunshine, currently removing his shirt. To be fair, the small crowd of teenagers also appeared to have lost all ability to speak, and were too busy staring at the man to even notice Barnes. Which was a good thing, as it gave Barnes the time to close his mouth. There were a small pile of wooden swords on the ground, and the teenagers looked damper than average, so Barnes assumed he had arrived at the end of a lesson. 

“Reet,” said the vision in a broad Yorkshire accent. “Who needs a spot of healing?” About half the teenagers put on brave faces, and the other half stepped forward. From what Barnes could see, the ones hanging back were mostly the ones needing healing, but he could remember that kind of misplaced bravado in himself and kept silent. Healing done, the youths filed out of the courtyard, leaving Barnes with the vision who appeared to, indeed, be Edward Keystone. 

Barnes stepped forward to introduce himself, but Keystone chose this moment to step over to the well, pulled up a bucket of water, and poured it over himself. Rays of sunlight reached through the leaves of the large acacia tree growing in the middle of the courtyard, caressing Keystone’s skin and catching the droplets of water running over perfectly sculpted muscles. As he reached up to ruffle the water out of his hair, Barnes inhaled sharply, and promptly choked on an insect. When he managed to breathe again, Keystone was patting his back and offering him the bucket to drink from.

“Hello, are you okay?” Keystone looked closely at him with intensely blue eyes, and Barnes was glad he could blame his blush on the cough.

“I’m fine, thank you. Just swallowed wrong,” Barnes rasped. He scooped water from the bucket with his hands and drank gratefully. Keystone raised his hand and waited for permission, and Barnes nodded. A gentle warmth washed over him, making him feel better than he had in years. Even the knots in his neck seemed to have disappeared like dew in the morning sunlight. 

“There, all better,” Keystone said brightly. “Can I help you with anything?”

“I’m looking for Edward Keystone, and I think you might be him?”

“So I am! What can I do for you?” Keystone gestured to the bench off to one side, and they both went over to sit down.

“Have you read the news lately?”

“Nah, not really. Been busy training this lot before William comes back to take over. I like them to improve a bit while I’m here, see?” The sunniness of his grin was entirely undimmed by Barnes’ terse manner, and he had to work to keep from fidgeting.

“Well I have, and it appears there’s something suspicious going on at the archaeological excavation at …  _ Hu-tep-wu, _ ” Barnes tried out the pronunciation awkwardly, “and I believe you know the people there?”

“Well, of course! I was at Hetepu before I was called back to Cairo, I have been working with Tjelvar for a while, and it turns out archaeology really is very interesting, at least once he started explaining properly. We were in Scotland before we came here, you know, and that was really exciting …” Barnes got the distinct impression that Keystone would prattle on indefinitely if he wasn’t stopped, but at the same time he had quite a bit of trouble interrupting. Barnes was a man with a commitment, even if his wished-for partner was ignorant of this and likely to remain so indefinitely, but even so the sunlight in Keystone’s hair and the frankly unbelievable blueness of his eyes were incredibly distracting. Barnes tuned out for a while, picking up the odd word here and there (Hannibal, frogs, quarantine, telescope?) until Keystone seemed to reach the present day, more or less, and the archaeological dig about two days' travel south of Cairo. 

“... and then Mr. Carter came out along with the sponsor people from the museum, and Tjelvar wasn’t too happy about that, but I think Mr. Carter is nice? Although he sometimes teases a bit more than I think is funny, but all in all …” At this, Barnes was brutally jerked back to the present.

“Carter?  _ Howard _ Carter?” Barnes could hear the incredulous tone of his own voice and contemplated bashing his head against the well. Luckily, Keystone was nothing like Wilde ( _ that bastard, I can see his smug face from here _ ), and didn’t seem to notice anything odd. 

“Yes, that’s right! Do you know him?” Keystone beamed at him, delighted by their mutual acquaintance. “The museum who funds the expedition wanted another archaeologist because we keep finding new graves, and Tjelvar didn’t seem too pleased, but I think it’s nice that he doesn’t have to work so hard.” Keystone paused a bit. “You said there was trouble?”

“Several of the people who have visited have died or fallen ill after they came back to Cairo,” Barnes explained as he pulled the newspaper article from his pocket. “I think they’re probably the museum people you were referring to, at least some of them were.”

“We had a few visitor groups,” Keystone said with a frown, “not only from the museum. The sponsors first visited a few months ago, but some others came more recently. And some of the tourists like to see the digs, even though it’s mostly sand at the moment. We haven’t started excavating properly yet, we’ve just identified the buildings and the graves, and found a few pots and smaller things.”

“I think we should go back and help them,” Barnes said, aware that his stress was audible in his voice, but unable to do anything to hide it. “They won’t even know that there’s trouble, I don’t think they get newspapers very often out there.”

“No, we get supplies a couple of times a month, so we’re pretty cut off - Tjelvar likes it that way, says it helps him focus on his work. But I really can’t leave yet,” Keystone looked worried, but determined. “William will be back sometime next week,and I will leave as soon as I can then, but I can’t go back on my word to Apollo.”

Barnes wanted to protest, but he knew there would be no point. And although he would prefer to toss Keystone over his shoulder and run towards the site immediately, he had to respect a paladin’s word to his cult. He sighed. 

“What if I make preparations so that we are ready to go at once when you are able to?” At this, Keystone smiled widely.

“That’s great! If you can write down a list, I know what I was supposed to bring back with me, and I have a couple of other things as well …” 

Barnes grabbed his pencil and a sheet of sketching paper from his bag and started writing. And resolved to talk to Wilde about finding this William and bringing him back. And to not mention Howard Carter at all. 

In less than 48 hours, William was back at the temple, ready to work if slightly confused about how he got there. Keystone had his bags packed within the hour, and came down to the courtyard to find Barnes waiting with packed camels and a tapping foot. The foot came to rest as soon as he saw Keystone’s smile, though. Its effect was nearly magical in itself. 

“Hello friend! I’m not sure how William knew to come back early, but I am relieved of temple duties for now. Do you have everything?” Keystone’s happy demeanor was easy to catch, and Barnes found his own normally taciturn face split into a grin.

“Everything’s ready, as am I. Shall we leave immediately, Mr. Keystone?” 

“Oh, please call me Ed, we’re travelling companions after all, Mr. …?” At this, Barnes realised that he’d never even introduced himself, and that Ed had just taken him on his word. How could the man trust so easily after all that had happened? Another mystery to unravel, perhaps.

“I do beg your pardon. My name is Barnes, Commander James Barnes. Though my friends usually just call me Barnes.”

***

About two days later, Barnes was riding behind Ed when he took a sharp right turn off from the path along the river. Barnes was certain he would have missed the camouflaged entrance to the small ravine between the stony cliffs if he hadn’t had a guide. The new path was narrower, but old enough to have been smoothed by millions of footsteps into a silky stripe of rock. The vegetation grew more scraggly and sparse as they headed away from the river, and the rock on both sides rose steep, but initially not too tall. 

Less than five minutes after they had left the path, the ravine opened up into a wider valley. Directly facing them was a massive rock face, rising several hundred feet of barren cliff in a gorgeous natural mosaic of red and golden hues. Barnes’ eyes were immediately drawn to a row of tents of varying sizes in the shade under the steep cliffs, surrounding a large cavern with a door fitted in the opening. Several smaller caverns dotted the cliff face higher up, but none of these had doors. Barnes had little knowledge of archaeology in general and even less of ancient egyptian civilisations, but even to his untrained eye, the door seemed out of place. 

“Tjelvar!” Ed shouted as he swung himself off his camel. He didn’t seem to be sore at all from the two days of riding, but Barnes chose to believe that was a paladin thing. He’d already felt Ed’s healing powers up close and personal, after all. He dismounted more slowly, and kept a lookout for Howard. He couldn’t see him anywhere, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. There were several halflings outside one of the tents, seemingly caught up in their own business, all wearing similar long, white clothes. Most of the tents seemed occupied, but it was hard to make out who the occupants were from the shadow figures on the tent walls. A freckled young human woman came running up to help Ed with his camel, and he greeted her cheerily. She blushed a little from his attention, but he didn’t seem to notice. Instead he turned his head to the figure emerging from the tent furthest to the left. Barnes followed his gaze and saw a tall, broad shouldered orc with long black hair gathered in a loose bun, medium gray skin and a naturally elegant bearing. He was handsome, too, with a strong jaw and a straight nose, and wearing small round glasses. He was very clearly happy to see Ed, and equally obviously trying to hide just how pleased he was, for some reason. Ed nearly bounced over to him, and Barnes could see the tell-tale dark blush on the very tips of the orc’s ears. He wondered about what their relationship was and how they had defined it, because there was clearly something there - even though it might not be clear to the two of them. 

The young woman came up to him to help with his camel, and introduced herself as Helena. She cast a few longing glances at Ed, but then most people did, and Ed clearly only had eyes for the orc, who Barnes assumed to be Tjelvar. 

“Do you know a Mr. Carter?” he asked Helena. His question was met with a slight frown, but she pointed him to a tent a couple closer to the cavern entrance from Tjelvar’s. He thanked her and walked over, suddenly hesitant now that he was finally here. What would he say? It had been months, and Howard had no idea he’d be here, unless Wilde had told him? And then what would he say? Barnes put a stop to his spinning thoughts and controlled his face, before stepping up to the tent. As he was figuring out how to knock on a soft fabric wall, the opening was pulled aside with a quick twitch, and there he was. Howard. Tall and lanky, handsome face more freckled than the last time he’d seen him, hair longer, mustache the exact same, collar open, hands at his side. Oh, those long, elegant fingers, Barnes remembered all too well what they could do … With an effort, he snapped his eyes back up to Howard’s face, and thought he caught just the edge of a smirk. Suddenly annoyed at it all, he took a step back and held out his hand for a shake.

“Mr. Carter.”

“Commander Barnes,” Howard answered, slightly stiff and seemingly off-balance. Barnes suddenly wished with all his heart to see that smirk again.


	3. In which Tjelvar gets a favourable impression of Commander Barnes, admires the work of Mr. Wilde, and enjoys Edward’s company

Tjelvar was so very pleased to see Edward again that he didn’t quite know what to say, but from painful experience he knew that he had to say something. Otherwise Edward might get that look again, where he looked like a puppy that didn’t know what it had done wrong but was convinced you were angry. And Tjelvar never wanted to see that look on Edward’s lovely face again, so he blurted out the first thing that occurred to him.

“Edward! I didn’t expect you for another week at least, what happened? I’m very glad you’re here, we have discovered some new urns that I really would like your help with… not that your help is the only reason I’m glad to see you, you understand, but, well … “ he trailed off, unsure why he couldn’t just talk normally when he saw Edward. Edwards just beamed at him. Tjelvar never could understand how Edward seemed so happy just to see him, but he appreciated it all the same. 

“Tjelvar, it’s so good to see you again! William came back early, so I could leave sooner. And that was a good thing, because Commander Barnes came to me just before with something he was worried about, something about people falling ill and dying after staying here?” Edward’s beautiful face was frowning, and Tjelvar had trouble thinking of anything but how he would like to make the frown go away again. Edward should just be happy, all the time. He shook himself out of it. His strange reactions to Edward’s every mood usually calmed down a bit after seeing him for more than a few hours, he just had to be patient about it. 

“People dying? I haven’t heard anything about that. I suppose it might be a tomb curse of some kind. Those are fairly usual in this region, but they normally hit quite soon, and usually it’s obvious from the symptoms. They are supposed to be as much of a prevention as a punishment, so if it’s not clear what it is, I don’t see how … “ he trailed off, falling into thoughts. He often did, but Edward never minded, bless him. He usually stood calmly waiting for whatever conclusion Tjelvar came to, however long he was silent or muttering to himself. Occasionally, in the past, Edward had gone off to make tea or gather firewood or, on one occasion, make an entire dinner, but normally he just waited patiently. 

Tjelvar’s thoughts shifted from the possible curse to Edward, as they often did. He wasn’t sure how to handle the ... situation. It was obvious to him now that he loved Edward. He had been floored by his beauty initially, like almost everybody was, but that was easily dismissed as a fleeting thing. But the more he spent time with Edward, the more he recognised how kind he was, how careful and gentle despite his strength, how he cared for the world and every creature in it … and when he realised what was happening, it was already too late. He was doomed to love Edward in silence and from a distance, and so he would do indefinitely. The longing and the daydreams of having more than his friendship and companionship was a small price to pay for his presence. 

After a brief interlude thinking about Edward, he recalled something he'd said initially. “Commander Barnes? I don’t know him, I think? What did he want?”

“He was worried about the curse, I think someone called Wilde told him about it and asked him to investigate?”

“Wilde? Oscar Wilde?”

“I don’t know, Commander Barnes never said his first name and I didn’t meet him, but I haven’t heard that name before so I guess it’s likely. Do you know him?” Edward’s innocent question made Tjelvar pause before speaking.

“I know _of_ him, yes. He used to be a writer and a journalist, and was working for the Meritocrats before all the trouble, but he changed sides and started working with the Harlequins when he learned that the Meritocrats weren’t in control of the situation. He played a significant role in the conflict, him and a band of mercenaries. I think Carter was one of them, but he hasn’t talked much about it.” Tjelvar contemplated this for a bit. It wasn’t like Carter to not talk about things. The man had never known a secret he didn’t want to spill immediately, and it was a strike of luck that he didn’t seem to remember a certain episode from their university days. If he had played any sort of significant role in fighting the infection, Tjelvar would have expected him to yell it from the rooftops. But instead, Carter had barely said a word about that time. This was perhaps something worth exploring further. At a later point though, for now there was the mysterious Commander Barnes to figure out. 

Tjelvar left Edward to unpack his things in his tent, the closest to Tjelvar’s own, and went over to Carter’s tent where he was standing outside, staring awkwardly at the newcomer. This was presumably Barnes. He was a handsome man, rather short of stature, at least compared to the tall and slender Carter. But he was broad shouldered and solidly built, with a shade of stubble and longish brown hair with a hint of natural curl to it. Something about him was vaguely reminiscent of the military, and at the same time he had a roguish air, like he would bring out a cutlass and the jolly roger at a moment’s notice. His shirt was generously unbuttoned, and Tjelvar caught a glimpse of pale scars across his chest. He stood rather stiffly, which was to be expected from spending two days on a camel, but the tension in his shoulders added to the impression of discomfort. Tjelvar looked between them. Carter had an almost hungry expression on his face, which was something new entirely. Barnes was blushing and avoiding Carter’s gaze. This was extremely weird. For all of Carter’s ability to antagonize a rock, he could also be very charming, and the two of them seemed to be familiar - if nothing else, then from the small distance between them. Well, that was a mystery for another time.

“Commander Barnes, I presume?” The sound of Tjelvar’s voice snapped Barnes’ eyes away from his shoes and up to Tjelvar’s. There was a certain amount of relief visible, and Tjelvar guessed he was pleased to be free of the awkward silence. Barnes held out his hand for a shake, and Tjelvar took it. A firm grip, on the edge of too firm. And kindness in the handsome face. 

“I am Commander Barnes, yes. Please call me Barnes.” Tjelvar felt his eyebrow flick a little at the preference for a last name, but he didn’t object. 

“My employer, Mr. Wilde, I don’t know if you know him - “ Tjelvar gave a short nod and ignored Carter’s curious gaze. “Right, he told me of some trouble that may have originated here, and tasked me with finding Ed and making my way here to see if I could assist in any way. There have been articles in the local Cairo newspapers about people falling ill and even dying after visiting here, and there are rumors of a curse, but nothing confirmed. And then I found out this was where Howard had hidden away, and - “ Barnes broke off, blushing violently. Tjelvar looked at Carter with eyebrows high, and Carter, also blushing, looked away. Interesting. 

“We’re not aware of any curses, and Mr. Carter and I are both quite experienced with those kinds of things,” Tjelvar answered. “Could it have been something else? A disease or food poisoning, perhaps? Or - “ he stopped at Barnes’ shaking his head.

“It’s not the same cause of death,” he explained. “Dr. Arash fell down the stairs and broke his neck. Mr. Stannard and Dr. Webb were attacked by robbers and left dead by the side of the road. Mr. and Mrs. Cham fell suddenly ill, and only Mr. Cham recovered. Miss Samir has fallen into unconsciousness, and even the high priestess of Aphrodite can’t wake her. Madame Gaudreau had a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. And over the last week, several of the museum staff have fallen ill, all with different symptoms, so naturally they are very worried. The only thing they all have in common is that they’ve visited this site over the last month, so a curse seems to be the most likely explanation.”

“Do you have the articles? And any other information from Mr. Wilde?” Barnes nodded and withdrew a rather hefty file from his satchel and handed it to Tjelvar. 

“I expect you’ll be staying with us? I’m afraid we’re rather short on tents after the storm a few weeks ago, but there’s a room in the main cavern that’s unoccupied, or I could ask Helena to see if two of the destroyed ones could be patched together?”

“He can stay in mine,” Carter said. His voice was rough and a little uneven, and he was blushing again. Tjelvar looked at Barnes to check, and Carter continued. “I mean if you want to, I wouldn’t want to presume - and the cavern is quite comfortable, perhaps you’d rather - “

“I can stay with Howard,” Barnes interrupted. His voice was steady and controlled. Somehow he had stopped blushing, which Tjelvar found intriguing to say the least. He was curious about the history between the two men, but at the same time felt that it was none of his business.

“If you’re sure? I’ll ask Helena to organise a camp bed and some essentials for you. We usually eat together after sunset, I think Hassan has kitchen duty tonight, and he makes a rather good lamb stew, so I hope Carter will be able to assist you when the bell rings? Excellent.” Tjelvar made a hasty retreat towards his own tent, hoping to get through all the documents before dinner. 

***

Tjelvar was sitting at his desk with several small stacks of paper. Newspaper clippings, employment files, and most interestingly, short dossiers written in an elegant hand. Close descriptions with relevant information on both the people who had fallen ill, and the other people in the visiting parties that were fine, so far. It was an amazing bit of work, and had to have been collected in an impressively short time. Tjelvar supposed Wilde was the mind behind this, and wondered if there was something else at play. Something to do with the Harlequins maybe? Or whatever other pies Wilde had his fingers in these days. It was difficult to find a pattern to the diseased and dead. It seemed entirely random, and indeed he would have thought it to be, but five dead and seven ill out of the perhaps twenty or so that had visited recently seemed excessive. He was making his own notes on the possible connections between all the people when the tent flap was lifted aside and Edward entered. All thoughts immediately flew out of Tjelvar’s head.

“You missed dinner,” Edward said, and Tjelvar belatedly noticed the bowl of stew in his hand. 

“Thank you, Edward,” he replied. “Would you like to keep me company? Have you eaten?” Edward looked delighted.

“I’ve eaten, yeah, but I can sit with you while you eat? If you’d like?” His hopeful smile was the most precious thing Tjelvar had seen in several weeks, and he couldn’t help but smile back. 

“Please do, have a seat?”

Edward plonked down on the bed, which was indeed the only available seat in the room, and Tjelvar turned around to face him, sitting with his bowl in one hand and his spoon in another. Edward required little prompting to tell Tjelvar about his time at the temple and travelling back with Barnes. There was little enough from the temple that was relevant to Tjelvar, but he still enjoyed hearing Edward talk about the new acolytes and who showed promise for what. Edward was, for all that he didn’t have a head for academics or philosophy, very good at understanding people and emotions, and he could have been a valuable resource to the temple if the high priest had only understood his particular talent. But as it were, Tjelvar got to have Edward with him instead, and they were both happier for it, so it had all worked out for the best, really. If it was perhaps a pity for the world as a whole, Tjelvar couldn’t bring himself to be sorry. 

He paid closer attention when the story got to Barnes. Edward had a good impression of the man, and this matched Tjelvar’s own feelings. Edward noted that he seemed surprised and not entirely pleased to learn that Carter was at the dig, but that he’d seemed increasingly eager to leave Cairo after learning the fact. Tjelvar felt a bit suspicious of William’s early return to the temple. Edward had covered for him before, and he had always been back late with some sort of excuse. Tjelvar was not feeling charitable towards William in general, as the man seemed hell bent on keeping Edward away from him, but he rationally knew that he was less concerned with whatever Tjelvar was up to and more with his own vacation time and private activities. 

“... and he’s used to travelling, I can tell, because he was really quick at setting up camp and making the fire, and he knew that we had to keep watch too,” Edward continued. “He let me choose my watch, and I thought that was real nice of him, so I got to see the sunrise over the river this morning. And he made us stop for proper lunch breaks too, and even looked well after his camel.” Edward seemed satisfied that this was all there was to say about Barnes’ character, and it did indeed seem to cover the most important parts. Nice to Edward, kind to animals, practical and skilled. Tjelvar nodded. 

“Did he talk while you travelled? About anything in particular?”

“He talked a bit about other times he’s been travelling. He used to be a sailor, and then he left to go help Mr. Wilde in Japan, and they were doing a lot of different stuff during the war. I didn’t understand it all, but I think I remember most of it?” Edward looked ready to repeat verbatim all the conversations they’d had along the way, but Tjelvar shook his head and Edward continued. “He mostly talked about travelling by ship. I think he misses the sea. But something keeps him from just going back to being a sailor, and I’m not sure what. He asked about Howard, but he tried to be casual about it. Like he wanted me to think it didn’t matter, but I could see it was important.” Edward stopped to think. “I don’t think there was anything else. Oh yes, he said he would be reporting to Mr. Wilde about what happens here, but I don’t know if he meant to say it out loud, I think he was thinking about something else when he said it.” Tjelvar nodded. This made sense - from what he knew of Wilde, he was likely to keep a network of contacts in place, and Barnes seemed the type to be employed by Wilde from time to time. Loyal and trustworthy, but with an edge to him. 

Tjelvar had finished his food while Edward talked, and got up to stretch out his back. He cracked his neck, stiff from hours over his table, but as he stretched out his arms over his head, the sun-warm glow of Edward’s magic washed over him. His breath hitched, and he tried to hide his inappropriate reaction.

“Tjelvar, you only have to ask,” Edward said, sounding slightly hurt. “It’s no trouble to heal you. None at all.” 

“I’m sorry, Edward, I just forgot again,” Tjelvar apologised. His habit of just ignoring his discomfort was long ingrained, and he had to make a conscious effort to ask Edward. But it made him so happy to heal Tjelvar whenever he had the slightest headache or achy muscles, so he told himself, yet again, to make sure to ask him next time. He smiled crookedly at Edward, who beamed back. And then he stretched out his arm to lay a warm hand on his neck, removing all soreness and leaving Tjelvar with the sort of contentment you get from spending the perfect amount of time in the sun - warm and relaxed, without feeling sweaty or sleepy. Edward’s smile alone was enough to make Tjelvar’s knees feel weak, if the magic hadn’t added to it already. 


	4. In which Howard has an awkward conversation interrupted by furniture, and spends his first night with his old boyfriend

The last person on the planet Howard had expected to see when he stepped out of the tent was Barnes. What could he possibly be doing here? Was he there to see him? To get back together? To explain what on earth had happened when he had left without a word? In the few seconds before he could gather himself enough to speak, images of their times together flashed before his inner gaze and he couldn’t help but smile at the rosy glow of happier times. And then Barnes took a step back, and Howard knew with dread certainty that whatever Barnes was there for, it was certainly not him. Barnes didn’t even show a hint of the smile he used to give to him and only him, didn’t give a secret wink or even a raised eyebrow. He looked completely composed and shut off as he looked up at Howard - and then he held out his hand. 

Howard thought he could possibly feel his heart breaking all over again. All this time he’d hoped that they could make up again if they only had some time to cool off, but the instant Barnes went for a handshake and not a hug or even a pat on the shoulder, he lost all hope. He composed his face with an effort and took the offered hand to shake it. 

“Commander Barnes,” he said, stiffly. “What can I do for you?” Barnes seemed slightly taken aback, but remained stoic. 

“I bring messages from Wilde,” he said. Howard tried to ignore the hot flare of jealousy in his gut. What was Barnes doing with Wilde now? The war was over, Wilde had finally managed to shack up with Zolf, could Barnes possibly be involved in that relationship? What - he stopped himself to try to pay attention to what Barnes was actually saying. 

“... after the newspaper articles. He wanted me to look into the issues people have been having after visiting this site, and to see if there was anything to the rumors about an undiscovered curse.”

“A what? Don’t you think Tjelvar and I would have discovered that by now? We’re not entirely inexperienced either of us, you know.” Howard tried to keep his petulant tone under control without succeeding. 

“I know that, but Wilde - “

“Oh, do shut up about Wilde,” Howard snapped. “I know he’s the world’s most charming man, but if you’re somehow still under his thumb I don’t know what to even say to you.”

“What? You know I’ve never thought that about him, I was always - “ Barnes broke off suddenly. Howard could see his blush rising thanks to his open collar, and it spread slowly up over his throat. Howard’s mouth went dry as he remembered other occasions when he’d made Barnes blush like that.

Tjelvar, bless him, chose this moment to interrupt. Howard was very relieved, as he had no idea what he would say next after his little outburst. He was pleased with Tjelvar unknowingly supporting him in that they were pretty competent at their jobs. And then he offered Barnes room in his tent. _What on earth did you do that for, Carter_ , he internally hissed at himself. Funny how that inner voice sounded like Wilde, damn him. And then Barnes agreed. Howard didn’t know what to think about any of it, really. All too soon, Tjelvar walked off with his papers, and Howard had no choice but to invite Barnes into his current home. 

The tent was fairly spacious, at least when he was living alone. He could easily stand at his full height, and his clothes and equipment were kept safe from the insects - or worse - in an ancient dresser painted in a lovely cool tone of blue. His bed stood along one side, and a desk with a chair stood at the foot end. He even had a bookcase with both books and boxes of their more interesting finds - and some small things he intended to keep for a rainy day. He was pretty sure Tjelvar was aware and choosing to appear ignorant. A wash basin and a small mirror was just inside the tent opening, making it easy for one of the junior members of the crew to fill up his water in the morning. 

He gestured for Barnes to take a seat on the bed, and sat down at his desk. An awkward silence spread across the tent. Howard desperately searched his mind for something to say, but Barnes got there first. 

“How have you been?”

“Fine, thank you,” Howard answered stiffly. “And you?”

“Working for Wilde, mostly, when he has jobs for me.” Howard felt his spine grow stiff at yet another mention of Wilde. “Been staying in Cairo. Travelling a bit. Much like it used to be, really.” Barnes got that longing look in his eyes, like he used to when he talked about the sea. Howard felt his heart go soft in sympathy, but he steeled himself with an effort. He had to keep his distance. He didn’t want to get hurt again. 

“So … how did you end up here then?” Barnes seemed to be making an effort to keep the conversation going. Luckily, Howard was saved from answering by Kasim, one of the juniors, and Helena arriving with the extra bed for Barnes. They set it up along the other wall, and left with a promise to be right back with more. 

Howard busied himself with some papers, and an awkward silence descended. He could hear Barnes moving to his own bed, sitting down, shuffling a bit. Howard kept silent.

The tent flap was unceremoniously flung aside as a desk and a chair was carried in. Barnes made a startled sound as two different juniors entered and deposited a desk and chair at the foot of Barnes’ bed, mirroring Howard’s setup. They retreated as quickly as they could, and Howard thought they might be afraid the awkwardness was contagious. As they left, Barnes cleared his throat.

“I think it’s time you got over Wilde. I know you tried it on with him, and I’m not sorry he turned you down, but that’s no reason to be jealous over me staying in his employment.” When Howard looked up, Barnes was leaning against his desk, arms folded across his chest.

As Howard drew a breath to answer those ridiculous claims, Helena once again appeared, this time with Thomas, carrying a screen of some sort. They placed it in the middle of the room, separating the beds and giving them both an illusion of privacy. Although it was a pretty screen, made of intricately carved dark wood, Howard did not appreciate it. He didn’t comment, however, and the two young people disappeared out again.

“I don’t think it was unreasonable to want to keep an eye on my boyfriend when he was staying close to that … that … philanderer,” Howard said indignantly as soon as the tent flap closed. Barnes snorted at his choice of words.

“Oh please, like he looks at anyone but Zolf. He hasn’t for years, and you know it.”

“Well, he had a reputation. Before.”

“So did you, as I recall. A reputation as a thief and a scoundrel.” Howard was torn between being scandalised at having his flawless reputation besmirched and bragging about his more successful illegal activities, and ended up making some incomprehensible noises. He thought he could hear Barnes stifling a snort behind his hand, but he couldn’t be certain enough to demand an explanation. 

Kasim reappeared with a narrow yellow dresser, followed by Thomas with a wash basin and Helena with a small mirror and a laundry basket. This was honestly approaching ridiculous, especially for a guest that was only staying for a short while. Howard heard a small giggle escape Thomas as he disappeared out again. 

“What do you mean scoundrel - no actually, don’t answer that. And what if I _was_ jealous? Shouldn’t that just have told you that I loved you and wanted to keep you to myself?” Barnes sighed.

“It would have been lovely if you could just trust me, even if you didn’t trust Wilde. I never gave you reasons to be suspicious, so I honestly would have preferred it if you had just left all those suspicions behind.”

“I’m … So you didn’t want me to be honest with you? Is that what you’re saying?” Howard was gearing himself up to real anger when the tent flap opened again. Howard wanted to scream. This time it was Kasim and Thomas carrying a bookcase between them. To all appearances Barnes had brought no books, but Howard didn’t have it in him to object.

“Are you done?” he asked, and Thomas nodded.

“Almost,” he answered. “Helena is bringing some boxes.” He sounded slightly apologetic, as if he knew how thin Howards patience was wearing. Maybe he did. Howard was pretty sure he was not keeping up his poker face at the moment. Thomas scurried out after Kasim.

“I seem to remember you saying something about valuing honesty more than anything in a relationship,” said Howard sourly. “Made a big point of it too, talking about how my … past experience, incidentally the very thing your precious Wilde hired me for, wasn’t in my favour when talking about honesty. And now you don’t want me to be honest about my feelings.” Barnes sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“We are not currently in a relationship, Howard,” he said. Howard didn’t know what to do about that statement. _Currently_. It sounded like Barnes was thinking they might get back together, and they certainly were not. Not after he had left like that. At the same time, his stomach gave a happy little wiggle at the use of his first name. 

Helena poked her head in through the flap. “Just some boxes now, for the shelf?” She sounded a little bit apprehensive and Howard felt a little bad for being so transparently annoyed earlier. She was helping, after all. 

“Thank you for helping, Helena,” he said. She looked pleased at this, and he resolved to be more considerate in the future. “Do you know when dinner will be ready?” Howard sat down on his bed where Barnes had sat earlier, feeling dejected and deflated.

“Half an hour or thereabouts, it’s Hassan’s lamb stew tonight, so you’d better be there early,” she replied with a smile and a wink. Howard thanked her again, and she disappeared out. 

A stiff sort of silence descended upon the tent, and Howard had no idea how to break it. To all appearances, Barnes didn’t either. He turned away and busied himself with emptying his bags and re-folding his clothes for the dresser. Howard stared at his hands, uncertain of what to do. He didn’t want to continue this conversation. It would be weird if he got up and found a book. But it was perhaps even weirder just sitting there, not-looking at Barnes getting settled. He could feel the muscles in his neck tighten and his jaw tensing up as the minutes ticked by. Barnes was definitely taking longer than any normal person would with folding and putting away his clothes. How many shirts could one man possibly have? Howard risked a glance up just as Barnes turned his head towards him and quickly looked back down at his hands. Decades passed. Mountains crumbled into the sea. Then Barnes cleared his throat. Before he could say anything, though, he was interrupted by the bell in the distance. 

“Is that the signal for dinner?” he asked. Howard nodded and got up. 

“We’d better hurry. There should be enough, but some dishes are more popular than others, and people here are likely to take seconds if you’re not there to defend your rights.” Barnes gave a small laugh at this, and Howard was furious that it made his belly flop. 

***

Ed joined them for dinner, which was a good thing for Howard’s ability to eat. Barnes and Ed seemed to have made friends over the journey, which surprised Howard a little bit. Not that Ed wasn’t lovely, but he could take some getting used to, what with the stunning beauty and the less than stellar intellect. Barnes as well was usually not an easy barrier to break down. Howard had taken weeks at his most charming to even get him to crack a smile. And yet, here he was, chatting with Ed about the small things happening around the dig. Ed was happy to talk to him too, not going quiet and shy as he sometimes did with new people. Howard could watch them talk and manage to eat and not have to choke on his own embarrassment over an awkward dinner with Barnes, who he still didn’t didn’t know how to feel about. 

After dinner, Ed took a plate over to Tjelvar’s tent, as he often did when he didn’t show up for dinner, and Howard lingered a bit at the table. Barnes’ voice made him look up from his hands pretty quickly.

“What do you do in the evenings here, then?” he asked.

“Not much. Night falls quickly, and we all do pretty hard physical labour all day. I usually go back to my tent and read, or work on reports to the museum, or on some of the smaller artifacts if we’ve found any.” On one hand, Howard wanted to go back to his tent as usual. On the other hand, he didn’t want to spend too much time with Barnes awake and in close quarters. He felt raw and uncertain around the man, and wasn’t sure he’d know what to do with himself. 

“Well, I wouldn’t want to disrupt your routine. I assume you have something to drink?” Howard could only nod wordlessly as he got up to follow him back. 

Back at the tent, they sat in awkward silence for a few minutes until Howard remembered to get the drinks. He poured out two shots of straight rum, which he knew well enough Barnes preferred. They then sat in some more awkward silence until Howard felt tiredness creep up on him and suggested they turn in. They changed into their night clothes at their separate sides of the screen, and Howard turned off the gas lamp when he heard Barnes get into his bed. There was a prolonged silence in the darkness before Howard whispered: “Goodnight, Barnes.” He didn’t expect an answer, but when he heard the returned whisper of “Goodnight, Howard,” it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulder, and he fell asleep more easily than he had thought he would. 

Too easily to hear the whisper of “Howard?” some time later. 


	5. In which Ed loves mornings, and is praised for his good qualities

Ed awoke as soon as the sun reached his tent. It was not as early as he would have liked, because of where in the valley they had set up the camp, but it was still earlier than most of the others. He enjoyed being woken by bright light on his white tent walls, and he was outside and doing his morning prayers before he was even properly awake. Back in the temple, he had asked for the highest room in the highest east-facing tower, and he’d had no competitors for eight floors of steep stone steps, even to catch the earliest possible rays of the sun. Here, the sun had warmed the steep stone walls for a while before it reached him, and he was getting up later than he had in years. But Apollo was happy enough with him despite his late start, and he made sure to never rush his prayers in return. 

He started out facing the sun, and did most of his prayers that way, but at the end he turned the other way, enjoying the warmth on his neck and admiring the great stone wall with the beautiful patterns. The way the sun enhanced the different colours of the stone made Ed think that maybe Apollo liked them too, especially the warm tones of golden and brown and red. There was the darker golden that looked like an eye, and the brown lines that looked like a loaf of bread, and the deep red of the sandal strap. Ed admired the rock wall slowly and carefully, for the first time in weeks, and it felt like home. 

Afterwards, he went over to the kitchen to make coffee. He didn’t like it himself, even though he enjoyed the scent of the coffee beans as he pushed them through the little grinder. He boiled the water and let the coffee sit for a while before filtering it through a cloth and pouring the fragrant, nearly black liquid into a robust metal cup. Then he made a pot of tea, and left that to steep while he brought the cup of coffee, now at the perfect temperature, over to Tjelvar’s tent. He entered on silent feet, and was entirely unsurprised to find him asleep at his desk. He went over carefully, placed the coffee cup away from any important looking papers, and put his hand on Tjelvar’s neck, stiff and painful from his dreadful sleeping position. 

“Hrrrngh,” said Tjelvar and sat up slowly. He looked wonderful, in Ed’s opinion. His hair was mussed and his glasses were somewhere in the mess of papers at the desk and he had sleep wrinkles from what looked like his shirt sleeve and a small pile of string. 

“Edward?” he asked, clearly still very confused from sleep.

“I’m here, Tjelvar,” Ed answered, and let his healing flow through his hands and into Tjelvar’s stiff neck. He made a lovely noise, somewhere between a growl and a sigh, and slumped sleepily sideways, leaning heavily against Ed. This had become, in addition to seeing the sun again, of course, one of the main reasons why mornings were Ed’s favourite time of day. It was all too often very easy to find a reason to put his hands on Tjelvar in the mornings when he was all sleepy and cuddly like this. Sometimes he wished he could just be there when Tjelvar woke up, perhaps even in the bed with him. But it was better not to think about things like that. Ed loved Tjelvar and was happy to get to stay with him and sometimes be useful in small ways. It wouldn’t be fair to hope for more. Neck completely healed, he gently pushed the coffee into Tjelvar’s unresisting hand. 

“Drink your coffee before it gets cold, and I’ll see you for breakfast in a bit,” he said, and then went back outside to see who was making the breakfast and if he could help. 

Some time later, he was sitting outside the kitchen area with porridge and tea, when Barnes and Howard showed up. Howard looked rested, and Barnes did not. He gestured for them to sit with him, and Howard spoke a few words to Barnes before heading into the kitchen. Barnes sat down across from Ed, grunting a sort of morning greeting. 

“Have you slept well?” Ed asked him, even though it was fairly obvious he had not. Barnes looked at Ed as though he was well aware Ed knew better and just shook his head. Ed didn’t know what to ask him, so he just remained silent and looked at Barnes. Sometimes people told him things if he just waited, and Barnes was no different.

“Howard and I, we have … history,” said Barnes.  _ That’s pretty obvious _ , Ed thought to himself, but he didn’t say anything. 

“It’s difficult seeing him again. And … I think things weren’t like I thought, maybe it was just a misunderstanding? So I have to think about what to do and what I want, rather than just … being angry, I guess.” Barnes blushed a little and didn’t say anything more, so after a while Ed replied.

“I don’t know anything about what happened, but if you want someone to talk to, you can talk to me. If you like,” he said, and Barnes grinned at him. He had a nice smile.

“I might do that. Thanks, Ed,” he said, as Howard came back with a tray with two bowls of porridge and a pot of tea. He looked a bit miffed, but Ed had no idea why. Luckily Tjelvar arrived too, slightly more awake and functional, patted Ed absently on the shoulder and went to get his own breakfast as well. By the time Ed managed to direct his attention back to Howard and Barnes, Howard was grinning and Barnes was eating. Howard had added chopped nuts to Barnes’ porridge and sugar to his own. 

“How are things going with Tjelvar, then?” Howard asked innocently. Ed was well aware that Howard was teasing him about his feelings for Tjelvar, but it felt good-natured, so he didn’t particularly mind. Still, he pretended to not understand what Howard meant, just because it was easier. 

“He seems fine, but he fell asleep at his desk again,” Ed replied, and Howard groaned at that.

“Gods, he was absolutely awful whenever he did that while you were gone. I hope he’s better about it now.” Ed chuckled at this, but didn’t reveal that he routinely healed Tjelvar every morning after a night spent at his desk. Howard should, frankly, be able to figure that out for himself. 

They fell silent for a beat, and Barnes and Howard seemed to have some kind of silent conversation going on when Tjelvar returned. Barnes immediately sat up straighter. 

“Have you found anything out from the files?” he asked, and Tjelvar nodded. 

“We should look at it after breakfast,” he replied in between spoonfuls. “I think the storage area in the main cavern would be best, away from the others.” Barnes looked impatient at this, but Ed would personally sit on him if he didn’t let Tjelvar finish his breakfast, and Howard seemed to be well aware. 

“I’ll go ahead and make some tea, I think. Anything I should bring?” 

“Paper and pencils maybe? And just give me fifteen minutes and we’ll join you.” Ed felt a warm glow in his chest at being included, even if he didn’t think he’d have anything to contribute. But just that Tjelvar wanted him there was enough to make his entire day, and it wasn’t even 9 am. He watched Barnes walk swiftly towards Howard’s tent, Howard following at his heels, and just enjoyed sitting beside Tjelvar in the morning sun for a few more minutes.

“What are you thinking about, Ed?” Tjelvar asked absently.

“Oh, nothing really. I’m just sitting and relaxing.”

“That sounds lovely,” Tjelvar said, and leaned lightly into Ed’s side. “I’m a bit worried about this mystery Commander Barnes brought. I’m not sure I understand it.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll figure it out, you’re very smart after all.” Ed smiled at the faint blush on the tips of Tjelvar’s elegantly pointed ears.

***

The cave was surprisingly cool compared to the outside, which was already heating up. Barnes was sitting on an empty crate, Howard was leaning against the wall. To Ed it looked like he was trying to make his legs look as long as possible, but he wasn’t entirely sure why. Anyone could see that Barnes only had eyes for him, so it seemed like a pointless effort. Ed didn’t think he’d ever understand why people acted in such complicated ways. 

Tjelvar immediately took charge and described what had happened to the different people and what had been said in the newspapers. Ed had heard this already from Barnes, so he just looked at Tjelvar for a bit instead. He had forgotten to brush his hair, and had instead just gathered it in a haphazard bun. He was wearing yesterday’s shirt, carelessly having buttoned only the bottom four buttons, leaving a generous glimpse of dark hair on a muscular chest, and a clean white undershirt. Ed was distracted by how he would like to unbutton those buttons and peel off the undershirt with his teeth. He was brought back to the present when Tjelvar mentioned Miss Selim, who he hadn’t liked much when she visited. 

“So there have been two main parties visiting in the past few months, in addition to the supply riders and the few random passers-by. One was a party mainly from England, with a few local guides, and one was from the museum and their associates. The list of the ones showing symptoms of illness are about equal parts from each party. I have looked through the files on each of the members of the party, but I would like Commander Barnes to do the same so that we can compare results.” Barnes nodded and held out his hand for the files. Tjelvar continued.

“Howard, we should talk about potential curses. I don’t think I’ve seen anything that fits these events, but I’d like us to both look through our references to see if we can find anything like it. Do you need any of my books to start with?” Howard shook his head. 

“A bit more about what you’ve found so far would be nice, though. What do you think has happened? Are we sure it’s a curse?” Howard looked uncharacteristically shrewd and suspicious to Ed’s eyes. 

“I’m not sure, no,” said Tjelvar with a trace of hesitance. “But I wouldn’t want to influence your views …”

“Oh, bugger that.” Howard wasn’t usually uncouth, and Ed got the impression he might be worried. “I think we’ll be better off knowing what you think at the start, and I’m concerned about what the museum will do. If they don’t figure it out, we might lose our funding, and I’d like to stay on here. There’s still so much we haven’t found, I can feel it.”

“Oh. I hadn't … yes. All right. I think that a curse, or even two different ones, maybe, seems like the most likely cause. Because there are too many deaths and accidents happening too close together to be a coincidence. But for all I know there might be someone using these incidents for their own purposes. At least three cases can be straight up murders, and the two others may well be. So if someone wanted to spread a rumour about a curse …”

“They might do away with a wealthy relative or two, or get rid of someone they hate?” Howard completed. He twisted the ends of his mustache thoughtfully, first one, then the other. Ed didn’t like this talk of murder much. It was one thing to smite the evil, that was just doing his duty as a paladin, but killing someone you knew, just to take their money? That was pretty evil, that was. He frowned to himself, but didn’t say anything.

“So I would like Edward,” Tjelvar said, and Ed snapped his gaze back to him, “to help me talk through all the people who have visited, to get his impression of them. If any of them seemed to have ill intentions, or like they were particularly devout to any god, or anything that seemed unusual.” Howard had had a slightly mocking smile at the beginning, but by the end he was nodding thoughtfully.

“That’s a good idea. Our Ed might not be a deep thinker, but he knows people,” he said, and Ed felt a small glow of pride in his chest that Howard thought he was good at something. Tjelvar nodded agreement, and Barnes gave him one of those brief smiles before he went back to his papers. 

“Would you like to help me, Edward?” Tjelvar asked, and Ed couldn’t nod quickly enough.

“Of course, Tjelvar, if you think I can do any good, I’m happy to help.”

“You’ll be the best at this, Edward,” Tjelvar smiled, and Ed could feel himself blushing. He made sure to smile too, so that Tjelvar would see he was happy and not embarrassed. Maybe he’d say something like that again. 


	6. In which Barnes learns to ask before he touches things, comes no closer to a solution, and makes an unpopular decision

The desk chair was surprisingly comfortable, and even though it was absurdly hot, there was a breeze in the valley. Barnes made the most of it by opening the flaps on both ends of the tent, securing his papers with stones and small objects lying around Howard’s desk and bookcase. It wasn’t cool by any measure, but there was air and shade, and that worked nearly as well. He was going through the files from Wilde, which were incredibly informative for being as short as they were, merely a page or two of handwritten notes on each of the visitors to the site, in Wilde’s flowy and readable script. Barnes pulled out his notebook to try and see if there were any parallels or connections between them. 

Some time later, Howard came back to the tent as well, carrying a fresh pot of tea and two cups. Barnes could have kissed him. Probably would have, before it all went to hell. They probably should talk some more about that. It didn’t seem like Howard had ran away, like he’d thought at the time. Barnes was well aware he wasn’t an easy man to love. He wasn’t comfortable showing affection outside of complete privacy, either by words or by actions, whereas Howard was a man who very much enjoyed affection. Expressing emotion at all didn’t come naturally to Barnes, again unlike Howard, who was an open book. He made friends slowly and rarely, while Howard was outgoing in the extreme. And, at the bottom of it all, was the worry that his differences to other men would one day make him less appealing. For a man whose birth certificate said Jane rather than James, it was a worry that loomed larger some days than others. 

Howard put a cup down beside him and made a strange noise in his throat when he looked down at Barnes’ desk. Barnes immediately felt his brow wrinkling in a frown. 

“Barnes, are you aware of what you’re using as paperweights?” Howard asked in his most innocent manner. Barnes felt his heart sink into his belly. He couldn’t really imagine any good answers to that question.

“You know I'm not. Are they human remains or extremely valuable?”

“Oh, a little bit of each. I’ll get you some actual rocks, shall I?”

“Yes, please,” Barnes groaned. He wasn’t sure which was which, but would rather keep his hands off the things until Howard removed them. On the other hand, this was the first sign of warmth Howard had shown him, apart from that first smile. And that made him a lot more happy that he had expected.

***

The teapot was empty and the sun had moved to a different angle when Howard spoke again. 

“Have you found anything interesting?” Barnes hesitated, then decided sharing his thoughts would be best. 

“There are so many connections between these people. At least within the two different groups. Some went to school together, others are related through marriage, there seems to be a lot of internal conflicts inside the museum … it’s difficult to know where to start.” He pulled out a large sheet of paper to show Howard. It was filled with names, which were connected by lines. 

“See, if it was just the one group, it would be easy to suspect a murderer. In the museum crowd, Mr. Cham got better from the mysterious illness that killed his wife. She was the one who had the money, and there have been rumors that Mr. Cham has been making eyes at Miss Samir lately. She didn’t want anything to do with him, though. He also had a big argument with Dr. Marsh, who had a sudden heart failure. But people keep falling ill or disappearing, and Mr. Cham can’t be after all of them.” Barnes stopped to draw breath, and Howard nodded.

“And in the other group,” Barnes continued, handing the first sheet to Howard and pulling out a new one, “it’s all accidents. Dr. Arash, Mr. Stannard and Dr. Webb were all friendly, but Mr. Duncan and Mr. and Mrs. Hayes didn’t speak to any of them at all after the first few days here, have had no contact with them since, and are completely fine. But still, three deaths within a week can’t be a coincidence, can it?”

“It seems unlikely, but I’ve never heard of a tomb curse that works like this,” Howard replied. “Accidents, illnesses, comas … it’s usually one single cause of death, and it usually hits within a shorter time frame, at most 48 hours after visiting the tomb. Not that we actually have found a tomb here in the first place, but tomb curses are the only types of curses we know of in this area that has the potential to last several hundreds or thousands of years.” Howard pulled his hair back with both hands. This accentuated all the best things about his face - his high cheekbones, his dark eyebrows, his elegant forehead - but it was clear he wasn’t thinking about his appearance in the least. 

“I haven’t found any descriptions of a curse that’s anything like this in any of my books either. And there hasn’t been a trace of any inscriptions, or a tomb at all, as I said. We’ve found graves, but they’re not like the regular tombs of the area. This is one of the things that makes us think this village is older than the ones we’ve seen before, and …” Howard broke off. “I’m sorry, this isn’t interesting to you. Shall I go get another pot of tea?” Barnes shook his head.

“It’s very interesting, and I’d like to hear more about it. But tea also sounds like a good idea. Do we have any biscuits?”

“A couple of the juniors made kaab el ghazal a few days ago, there should be some left. You’ll love them.” Howard picked up the teapot and held the tent flap open for Barnes to follow, and he had to admit he was a little bit charmed by the gesture. He grabbed the cups and followed. 

***

Tea and biscuits consumed, Barnes was thinking about getting in a little afternoon nap. He went to lie down on the bed, absently watching Howard bent over his desk. He was occasionally muttering to himself, making notes in his journal, but it didn’t look like he was making much progress. They weren’t really getting anywhere, Barnes thought to himself. Howard clearly tended towards thinking it was murder or accidents, or possibly a combination of both, while Barnes himself thought it more likely to be some kind of curse. And without any new information, it was hard to see how they would figure it out. 

Initially this hadn’t been anything more than a mystery to Barnes, another mission to be done for Wilde, for whatever reasons Wilde had for any missions currently. But Howard’s worry for the funding had been contagious, and Barnes wanted to make sure they could keep going with their dig. It was a nice place too. The valley was barren and sandy, but something, maybe the way the rocks lost the sun in the afternoon, made it less baking-oven hot and more pleasantly warm. There was an almost constant mild breeze, and the river was just a short way away, with at least some vegetation and a possibility to cool off. The evenings and nights were even approaching cold. It was lovely. He would like to stay.  _ Wait _ . He broke off his own thoughts right there. Nothing was indicating that he would stay once the mission was over. Nothing was even close to resolved between him and Howard, and even if it had been, him staying wouldn’t be a given.  _ Stop getting ahead of yourself, Barnes _ , he told himself sternly. He tried to order his thoughts. 

Did he want to get back with Howard? Yes, if they could have a proper conversation at some point to be on an even footing. Could he stay with Howard if that was the case? Yes, if he could do something useful around the dig, or potentially do about half the missions for Wilde so he didn’t have to leave as much. Could they stay here? Yes, if they could keep the funding from the museum. How could they keep the funding? By solving this mystery, hopefully. So his goal was to get back with Howard and stay with him, preferably right here. To do that, he’d have to get the mystery solved somehow, and talk to Wilde about his employment. The best man to solve the mystery was undoubtedly Wilde, the man was brilliant. So if he got Wilde here, he could solve the mystery and see why Barnes wanted to stay here, even though he would probably never understand why Barnes wanted to stay with Howard. Barnes decided to send a message to Wilde as soon as he got up from his nap. Who knew, maybe Howard’s jealousy would even kick him into having a proper conversation. With this pleasant thought, Barnes dozed off. 


	7. In which Tjelvar provides sustenance, and inspects anyone’s emotions but his own

Edward looked very good on his bed, Tjelvar thought, before he could catch himself. Objectively Edward looked good all the time, but the sight of him draped over Tjelvar’s bed right after breakfast sent his thoughts in all kinds of inappropriate directions. Edward appeared oblivious to what a lovely image he made though, looking dreamily up at the tent fabric while a broad stripe of sunlight caressed his hair and his left arm, tucked behind his head. Tjelvar wasn’t entirely clear on just how the sunlight got into the tent, the angle was all wrong this early in the day. Maybe there was some kind of reflective surface across the valley? 

“Are you okay, Tjelvar?” Edward didn’t seem judgmental at all over Tjelvar’s lapse into silence, but he felt bad nevertheless. He shouldn’t just stare at Edward like that, it was inappropriate and … well, it was inappropriate. Edward would go on to find someone beautiful and kind whom he would fall in love with, and Tjelvar would never see him again. Better to appreciate his presence while he had it and stop with that silly daydreaming. And he had, yet again, taken too long to answer. Edward sat up a bit to look at him, and he immediately felt the blush touch his ears. 

“I’m fine, Edward,” he answered hurriedly. “I’m just thinking. Where did we stop yesterday?” Edward flopped back again, but stuffed Tjelvar’s rolled-up blanket under his head so he could keep eye contact. 

“We were talking about the people in the museum party. You said it was interesting that I didn’t like any of the people who have died or fallen ill, but I’m not sure what that means.”

“Hmm. I have a hypothesis - a theory, of sorts. I think that you’re able to tell if people’s intentions are good or bad, even if you don’t use your paladin magic. It doesn’t seem like it’s the same as the detect spell you do, though, so I’m not sure how it works.” Edward cocked his head to the side.

“I dunno about that, I … you make it sound like I’m special or something. I’m just - I’m just Ed,” he said. Tjelvar had to gather his thoughts after such an absurd statement.

“No, Edward, you’re very special. You’re kind and strong and good with people and- “ Tjelvar broke off, quite embarrassed that he’d just spoken about his feelings out loud, like that was an acceptable thing to do. He could feel his cheeks getting darker in addition to his ears. He dared to sneak a glance at Edward, who was blushing, but smiling broader than Tjelvar had ever seen before. 

“Thank you, Tjelvar,” he said. “It’s lovely of you to say that.” Tjelvar was unable to say anything and occupied himself by pretending to take a sip from his, now very empty, teacup. 

“I’ll - I’ll just go get some more tea, won’t be a minute, you just - you just relax,” Tjelvar mumbled desperately and escaped with the teapot. 

Still blushing furiously, he naturally ran straight into Carter and Barnes, coming out of the kitchen area with their own teapot and a plate of what looked like kaab el ghazal - which they, to Tjelvar’s knowledge, had run out of some days ago. He eyed the plate with extreme suspicion.

“That’s an interesting colour on your face, Tjelvar,” said Carter, the obnoxious bastard. “What have you said to Ed now?” Tjelvar spluttered, but recovered quickly. 

“Never mind my face, what are those biscuits? Where did you hide them?” Carter looked shifty, and the combination of Tjelvar’s glare and Barnes’ sideways glance was apparently enough for him to offer half of the biscuits. Tjelvar considered this, along with avoiding his own face as a topic for conversation, a resounding success, and went to make the tea. 

By the time he came back to the tent with tea and biscuits, he was again composed and Edward was humming to himself on the bed. He brightened like a rising sun at the biscuits, and Tjelvar was enormously pleased with himself for getting them for him. He wondered briefly if he could maybe learn to make them, and then remembered what had happened the last time he’d tried to make anything more complicated than soup, and dropped the idea. 

“Carter had stashed the last of the biscuits somewhere, but I managed to get half,” he said, almost managing to hide the smugness in his voice. Ed laughed.

“Howard likes his sweets, and he likes to know there’s always something he has kept secret. Like a squirrel,” he said. Which made it seem endearing rather than annoying, somehow. Tjelvar shook his head with a smile. 

“I think this Barnes fellow is a good influence on him. He just looked at him and he gave up the biscuits without any complaining.”

“Hmm, yes,” Edward mumbled around his biscuit. He swallowed and wiped a few crumbs from his lips before continuing, and Tjelvar tried his best to not want to lick them off instead. “They used to be together. They met working for that man in the war, the one who sent Barnes here -“ 

“Wilde,” Tjelvar supplied.

“Yes, him. They were working with him for years and they were pretty isolated at times, in Japan I think? Mostly the two of them worked together and Wilde worked with this other man - or dwarf, maybe? I don’t remember. But they always did the quarantine thing when they came back from missions. So they spent a lot of time together alone. And they got to know each other, and then they kissed, and had to keep it secret because of the war! But Wilde knew all along and just kept an extra eye on them and didn’t separate them at all, which was real nice of him, I think.” Edward sighed dreamily. “It was all very romantic. And then they stayed together after the war, until something happened and they weren’t together anymore.”

“Amazing. How do you know all that?”

“Barnes told me, of course, last night. People talk to me, you know. They think I don’t listen, or that I don’t understand, and so they just … talk.” Edward smiled at that. “Barnes is nice though. He’s a good man, and I hope they work it out between them. I think they’d be good together.” Tjelvar nodded at that. He could sort of see it, when Edward talked about it. 

“Why does he prefer to use his last name, do you know? I mean we’re all kind of informal around here, but -“

“Oh yes. He doesn’t like his first name. He wanted something that was easy to change on his papers, but it sounds a lot like his old name, and he doesn’t like that. He wasn’t officially a man when he joined the navy, you know. I don’t think he likes to talk about it much though.” Tjelvar felt a little embarrassed for asking, but at the same time, he was glad he knew and wouldn’t accidentally be indelicate by asking for a first name. 

“Thank you for telling me, Edward,” he said. “I won’t mention it to him.” Edward smiled and reached for the teapot, pouring for them both. Tjelvar admired his hands while he kept his gaze on the hot, dark tea.

“Have we talked about all the people you wanted to talk about, Tjelvar?” Edward asked, reaching for a second biscuit. Tjelvar averted his eyes before he had to watch Edward put the biscuit into his mouth. It only made him think about kissing that mouth, and how it maybe would taste of the almonds and orange blossom in the biscuits, and … no, not going there. 

“Yes, I think so,” said Tjelvar and checked his notebook. “Yes, everyone but the three juniors in the museum party, but none of them have fallen ill yet. Or died.” Ed seemed to be thinking about it.

“I don’t think I remember them either way,” he said. “They kept to themselves mostly, I think?”

“Yes, I believe they were writing the report for the investment committee, so they didn’t socialise much, I think. So yes, that’s all.” Tjelvar looked at the results. The ones Edward had had a negative reaction to were nearly all dead or fallen ill, except for Mrs. Hayes. None of the ones he had liked had even a note of illness among them. But what did it mean? Who had heard of a tomb curse that made a moral judgment based on the tenets of Apollo? It was interesting, but didn’t make him any wiser. No, it was perhaps worth taking another look at the criminal route. 

“I don’t think it’s a curse, Edward,” he said after a contemplative silence. “I think it might be part coincidence, and part someone taking advantage of the situation for their own gain.”

“Okay,” said Edward, as always trusting Tjelvar’s opinion. “Who, then?”

“I have no idea. I think I’ll have to talk to Barnes about it, he’s been looking at it too. Did you think any of them seemed like a murderer?”

“I dunno. What’s a murderer like?” Tjelvar had no answer for this, not having met any murderers himself. “Maybe we could ask that Mr. Wilde? He asked Barnes to take a look, after all,” Edward suggested. Tjelvar almost felt his hackles rise. 

“I would prefer if we didn’t,” he said, rather stiffly. Edward straightened up from his slouch over his teacup and looked Tjelvar straight in the eyes. 

“You don’t like him,” he said. Tjelvar shrugged. “Why?”

“I - Well. You know how I have worked for a lot of different museums?” Edward nodded, obviously interested in listening to a story. A pity this one was so short, really. Tjelvar liked having Edward’s attention. “I was presenting my finds after one of the first expeditions I went to, and Mr. Wilde was at the reception. He was something of a celebrity before the war, wrote articles sometimes, even. When I was presenting, Mr. Wilde was in the audience, listening. And when I was finished, I saw him over in the corner, drinking champagne. So I went over to ask him if he would be writing an article about it. I was hoping he would, it would be easier for me to get funding for my next project, and he seemed interested, and … I was young and arrogant. But he said “he wouldn’t dream of exposing my work to the public”, and then he walked away. So I guess I don’t have the best opinion of the man, and it appeared to be mutual.”

“I don’t understand, Tjelvar,” said Edward. “That comment could mean anything.” Tjelvar thought about this for a while. It was possible to interpret it in different ways, of course. But years of resentment wasn’t easily forgotten. 

“I would still prefer it if we could solve this on our own, Edward. I … I don’t like being made to feel inadequate.”

“I’m sorry anyone ever made you feel that way. You’re so smart and handsome and nice.” Edward blushed a little, but smiled at Tjelvar as he got up from the bed. Tjelvar could feel his brain whirring at him, unable to process properly. Edward thought he was handsome? What …?

“Are you coming?” Edward asked from the tent opening. “The dinner bell will ring in a few minutes.” Tjelvar got up, slightly dazed, and followed Edward out into the sunlight.


	8. In which Howard has all the emotions

When Howard woke up the next day, he felt like this was going to be a good day. The sun was shining, as it always was, he felt rested and relaxed, and he could hear Barnes’ gentle snoring next to him. As he woke a little bit more, he realised Barnes wasn’t next to him, but at the other side of that blasted wooden screen. And just why that was, and the fact that this wasn’t four months ago. This put a bit of a damper on his good mood. He stretched, got out of bed, and slipped out of the tent to get some tea, slipping on his dressing gown as he went. 

The camp was quiet, and he thought it was a fair bit earlier than when he usually got up, but then his usual habit was to sit up until late at night with his whisky and his books, not to go to bed when someone else started yawning. He headed to the kitchens, and nearly walked straight into Ed on the way out, carrying a cup of coffee. They exchanged whispered greetings, and Ed went on to Tjelvar’s tent while Howard went inside. Howard had never gotten the taste for it himself, but he knew Tjelvar liked it in the mornings. It was adorable, really, how Ed took care of Tjelvar. He reminded himself to check with Hassan how the book was going on their getting together. Ed had left plenty of hot water for the next person to wake, so Howard made quick work of adding tea leaves and water to a fresh pot, and headed back to his tent. 

Barnes was just waking up when he entered, turning and making those adorable snuffling noises he made when he was on the verge of opening his eyes, and sure enough, there was the full-body stretch before he blinked at the light. The entire thing was so familiar to Howard he nearly got teary eyed with nostalgia, but he managed to control himself. 

“Tea?” he offered, and Barnes blinked at him before nodding and giving him the mere shadow of a smile. Howard loved that smile. By the gods, he had to try and talk to him. Barnes made a little humming noise as he took his first sip, and Howard had to get back to his bed to sit down for a minute. How could he talk to him though? The hurt of having been left was still very raw. Maybe it was better to keep the memories and move on as best he could? Not that he would ever be able to find someone else like Barnes. Exhausted with his own indecision, he pressed his pillow over his face and groaned. 

“Howard? Are you okay?” Right, the pillow didn't actually dampen sound that well. 

“I’m fine, Barnes.” He picked up his teacup and stared into it. It held no answers. 

***

Despite his resolution, Howard didn’t really feel up to talking to Barnes. Luckily, Tjelvar gathered them again after breakfast for yet another circular debate on whether they were dealing with a curse or a murderer. Howard had never heard of a tomb curse that did anything like what had happened, so he held firm that it was murder. Possibly some were accidents, but the murderer had used that to their advantage in that case. Howard’s main suspect was Mr. Cham, and Barnes agreed with him that he would be the most likely culprit if there was a murder, but thought that a curse was far more likely. Tjelvar kept going back and forth in a way that Howard found incredibly annoying, but which Tjelvar insisted was “proper debating technique”. He felt well and truly done with everything when it was time for dinner, and for once brought his bowl back to his tent to eat in peace. It did not improve his mood. It had gone dark when Barnes got back, and Howard did his best to not feel insecure about that. There was a limited amount of people he could have talked to, and additionally, he reminded himself, he had no right to ask. Barnes was a grown man and Howard was not his boyfriend, and - 

“Don’t worry, I was talking to Ed,” said Barnes.

“I didn’t ask,” Howard snapped, immediately feeling bad about it.

“Well, you were not-asking very loudly. Anyway, Ed is nice, and I thought you wanted to be alone.” Howard didn’t know how to express his confusion.

“I did. And I wanted to talk to you. But there was so much all day, and - argh.” He sat down on the bed again and put his head in his hands. 

“I know,” said Barnes, and Howard wanted to kiss him. Again. “Do you want me to get some tea?”

“I don’t know if tea can fix this, Barnes.”

“I know it can’t, but it tastes good,” said Barnes, picked up Howard’s discarded bowl and left. Howard flopped back on the bed. 

When Barnes returned, Howard had managed to gather himself sufficiently to make full sentences. 

“I’m sorry for behaving weirdly all day. It’s just - I’m worried about the funding. I don’t know what to do if we lose the dig. I don’t know how to fix this - I would like us to be friendly again, but I don’t know how. And - it’s all so much.” Howard felt like he was whining, something Wilde had accused him of repeatedly, but Barnes just nodded calmly.

“We do need to talk, though,” he said, and Howard squirmed uncomfortably. “What is stopping us from being friendly, in your opinion?”

“When you first came - what did you mean I was hiding here?” he asked, doing his very best to keep his voice calm. He felt this was an unfair description of events, as Barnes was the one who had left. Left without a word about his whereabouts at that. Howard knew he wasn’t any good at relationships, as evidenced by the string of failed ones in his past, but he thought he’d had a good thing with Barnes. 

“Well, I couldn’t find you, could I? When I came back you were just gone. No word, no nothing. What was I supposed to think about that, other than that you’d left?” The hurt in Barnes’ voice was audible now, and he was rapidly losing the calm manner he’d kept all day.

“I left? What on earth do you mean  _ I _ left? I was there, in the bed, alone. You were gone. You didn’t come back. So then I left too. What else was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, wait until I came back? Instead of just running away?”

“Well, Barnes, if you had told me where you were going and why, I might have had a chance to understand, but as you just left, what was I supposed to think?”

“I told you I had to go! I told you I had a job to do!” Howard thought back to that night months ago, but his memories were hazy beneath the remembered passion. Something to that effect might had been said, but - 

“And I was just supposed to magically know that you’d be gone the next morning without saying goodbye? That you’d be gone for over two weeks?”

“I didn’t want to wake you! And I was delayed! Which you would have known if you’d just asked Wilde - “

“I would prefer not to talk about Wilde,” Howard interrupted stiffly.

“I’m sorry. I know you don’t, but it’s relevant.”

“I don’t know how you could expect me to go ask him where you were, though. Couldn’t you have sent word?” Howard was aware he sounded vulnerable and he hated it, but he had no ability to keep his emotions out of his voice. 

“I couldn’t. I was delayed on a ship off the coast of India, which sailed far earlier than anticipated. I returned as soon as I could, but I couldn’t get Einstein to pick me up while I was at sea.” This seemed, unfortunately, entirely reasonable, and Howard was forced to admit, if only to himself, that maybe what had happened hadn’t been Barnes’ fault alone.

“I know it’s a lot. I can’t do anything about the funding,” he held up a hand as Howard wanted to protest, “- and yes, I know you didn’t mean I should fix that part of it. What I can do is this. It was a misunderstanding, Howie. It wasn’t your fault any more than it was mine. We were both hurt, and that hasn’t gone away yet, and that’s okay. I was hurt and I will get past that. I would like to be your friend.” Howard felt a bit sniffly and hurriedly dried the gathering wetness from his eyes. 

“Okay,” he said, voice raw. “Thank you.” 

“We do have to talk about Wilde though,” said Barnes, and Howard nodded miserably. 

“I know. But can we do that tomorrow? And just drink tea for now?” Barnes gave him one of those special, small smiles and nodded. 

***

The sun was high in the sky when Howard heard the sound of hooves and saw two figures on camels coming in through the pass. One tall and elegant, wavy hair fluttering in the breeze, the other one short and broad, with strikingly white hair and a long beard. Wilde. And Zolf. Howard sighed and felt like the weight of the entire world was placed on his shoulders. 


	9. In which Ed makes new friends, does a lot of thinking, and shows Mr. Wilde something obvious

From the spot outside his tent, Ed saw the tall man get down from the camel in a practiced manner, landing steadily on the ground. He kept the reins in his hands as he stepped up to offer a hand to his shorter companion, who took it before jumping down from the camel and landing with a heavy thud. The tall man held out his hand to the dwarf and received two rather dry apples, which he gave to the camels. Ed approved of this. He saw Helena approach them as she usually did with visitors, and that they were pointed in the direction of Howard’s tent. The tall man strode off, while the dwarf stopped to have a few words with Helena, seemingly about the camels. One of them bowed their head down to nip at his hair, and he patted their nose absently, but gently. He walked off with Helena towards the stables. 

Ed assumed that the tall man was the one who had told Barnes to go to Hetepu, although he couldn’t remember his name, and thought about what the others had said about him. Tjelvar was impressed with his notes and his skill, but thought he was arrogant and unpleasant. Barnes said he was fair, and a good employer, and very smart. Howard hadn’t wanted to say anything, but Ed had used his tried and tested tactic of asking and then waiting, and eventually Howard had told him about working for him during the war, and how it had been dangerous, but interesting, and that Wilde was smart, skilled, and “too handsome for his own good”. So all three of them had agreed he was smart, and good at whatever it was he did. Ed would wait and see how the other things they had said matched up to the reality. 

Looking back down at the tray of potsherds in his lap, Ed picked up another piece and started to brush it carefully to get rid of years of sand and earth that had fastened in the little grooves. Initially he had thought that it would be easier to just wash the small pieces, but Tjelvar had told him about how delicate they were, and so Ed was very careful and patient when working on them. He liked to think about what they had been once, and who had owned them. He imagined that a woman had crafted the bowl, engraving the pattern with loving thoughts before giving it to her daughter for dyeing cloth in her little hut. Ed could already see there was a large piece missing, but he had hopes they would find it at a later point. 

The other reason Ed liked to work with the potsherds, was that he had the time and quiet to think. Nobody disturbed anyone else here while they were working, and Ed enjoyed having the time to think about things, and sometimes not think about anything at all. Today he was thinking about Howard and Barnes. Both of them had talked to him a bit, and he thought he understood most of the situation: they’d been in a relationship, had a misunderstanding, and then left each other. But it was very easy to see that they still loved each other, at least it was for Ed. He didn’t know what the others thought, but they hadn’t said anything - but maybe they wouldn’t. They knew he was friends with Howard. So because they still loved each other, Ed thought they should get back together. That was the only good solution really. They were both nice people too. So what was keeping them away from each other? Ed thought about this for a while before his thoughts drifted to Tjelvar, as they often did. Tjelvar was so wonderful. Ed would really like to be in a relationship with him, but how would he find out if Tjelvar would like that? 

His thoughts were interrupted by a shadow falling over his table. He looked up at the tall man, and could see that he was in fact very handsome. He had grey streaks in his hair, and a brutal looking scar on his face, but none of those things made him less striking. Ed saw a slight smirk on his lips that could make him look mocking, he supposed, but more than that he saw the kindness in his eyes. Ed liked him immediately.

“Hello,” he smiled at the man. “Can I help you?”

“Edward Keystone, I presume,” said the man, and held out his hand. Ed shook it. “I’m Oscar Wilde, I’m sure Commander Barnes has mentioned me.”

“Yes, Mr. Wilde,” Ed replied honestly, “both Commander Barnes and Mr. Carter, and Tjelvar as well, have talked about you. Welcome to Hetepu.” Mr. Wilde smiled at him, and gave him a familiar once-over.

“So what are your thoughts on this matter, Mr. Keystone?”

“I dunno, Tjelvar says that if it’s a curse then it’s an unusual one, and Mr. Carter says it’s probably murder, and Commander Barnes says that new curses are invented all the time, so why wouldn’t it be that. So I don’t know really.”

“Hmm,” said Mr. Wilde, and just looked at Ed for a while. Ed smiled at him. This was just what he did when he wanted people to talk! Maybe Mr. Wilde wasn’t as scary as he had thought. After a while, Mr. Wilde smiled back. 

“Is there anything you have thought about, then, Mr. Keystone? I gather you have worked on this as well?” Ed blushed a little.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I helped Tjelvar with talking about the people who had been here, and I listened to them talk about their thoughts, and I helped Mr. Carter look for any inscriptions around the dig, but we didn’t find any. There haven’t been any inscriptions at all here so far, except the big one of course.”

“Hmm,” said Mr. Wilde again. “Would you mind introducing me to Mr. Stornsnasson?”

“Of course, but you’ve already met him,” Ed told him. When Wilde just cocked his head at him, he continued: “You were at his presentation at the museum in London, years ago. He asked you to write an article, and he thought you were rude when you refused. From what he said, I thought you were mysterious. Or … what’s the word? Not quite mysterious, but hard to understand?”

“Cryptic,” said Mr. Wilde. “Oh dear, I didn’t make a good first impression there, did I?”

“Not really,” Ed laughed, “but Tjelvar is reasonable. I’m sure you can make him see that you didn’t mean it.” He gestured for Mr. Wilde to follow him, and led him to Tjelvar’s tent. Tjelvar came out at his call, and Ed introduced the two men and went back to his work. From where he sat, he could see them talking, and they appeared to be getting on reasonably well. 

Ed kept working, thinking about Tjelvar, until another shadow fell on his table. This time it was the dwarf who had arrived with Mr. Wilde. He looked gruff, but kind, like he’d tell you all the things you did wrong, but at the end of the day remember the things you did right as well. He reminded Ed a little of the horsemaster at the temple where he’d studied. He’d been hard on the students, particularly the ones who didn’t care to do a good job when it was their week in the stables or the ones who didn’t brush the horses well enough, but he was always kind to the animals and took the time to explain how to do things right. Ed had liked him very much, so he thought he might like this new person as well, and smiled at him. The dwarf looked a little flustered, but he introduced himself as Zolf Smith and asked after Mr. Wilde. Ed looked over at Tjelvar’s tent, but they weren’t there anymore. 

“They might have gone to walk through the site,” Ed suggested, “but it will be time for dinner soon and I’m sure they’ll turn up. Would you like to join me?”

“Sure,” muttered Mr. Smith, and walked beside Ed to dinner. Barnes and Howard were already there, and greeted Mr. Smith as an old friend, so Ed left them to it and went to get food for himself and Mr. Smith. He seemed surprised that Ed had picked up food for him, but thanked him and made pleased noises at the stew. It was good, even if it wasn’t as good as Hassan’s lamb stew. Mr. Wilde and Tjelvar soon joined them, and the talk went to gossip about people in Cairo. 

Ed didn’t feel like he had anything to contribute, so he just listened and watched instead. He could see the closeness between Mr. Wilde and Mr. Smith like a thread, the way they seemed to know what the other would say and how he would react before it happened. The way Mr. Smith just tapped Mr. Wilde on the wrist to get him to pass the pepper, and the way Mr. Wilde seemed to know exactly where Mr. Smith’s hand was without looking. Ed thought it was romantic, in a very practical way. Maybe he could have something like that with Tjelvar one day. He had been thinking a lot the last few days, and he was quite sure that Tjelvar at least enjoyed his company. And he didn’t think he would be angry if Ed asked to kiss him. The trouble was that he had no idea if he would say yes or no, and what would happen after that. Well, in a general way he knew what would happen if he said yes, of course. Ed knew he was a good kisser, so he wasn’t too worried about that. But what if he said no? Wouldn’t that be horribly awkward? And even if he didn’t get angry, maybe he wouldn’t want to keep Ed around anymore. 

Ed was very distracted as he collected the plates to bring back to the kitchen, so much so that he nearly missed Mr. Wilde’s subtle tilt of the head. But he caught it, and went to the main cavern entrance as soon as he had dropped off the plates to Thomas on kitchen duty. Mr. Wilde was leaning elegantly against the rock wall, waiting for him.

“Ah, Mr. Keystone. Something you mentioned earlier. Where is this big inscription you told me about?”

“Oh!” said Ed, surprised. “I’m sure you saw it when you came into the valley. It’s very big.” He gestured for Mr. Wilde to follow him to the opening of the ravine, and turned back towards the rock wall opposite. 

“There,” he pointed. “All across the wall. I can’t read it, but I recognise the glyphs. I know the one with the rope and the squiggly line, and the one that means town.” Beside him, Mr. Wilde barked a joyful laugh, and brought out his journal and a pencil to write it all down. 


	10. In which Wilde has to do all the thinking around here, and gives the best advice

They were all gathered in a satisfying half circle in front of him, Keystone looking interested, Stornsnasson looking sceptical, Carter looking vaguely resentful, and Barnes looking very businesslike. He even had his notebook and pencil out. Zolf was standing a little apart, leaning against the rock wall. Oscar recognised his stance: alert yet relaxed, ready for trouble but not tense. Not that any of them anticipated any trouble, but to Zolf, protecting Oscar had become second nature. Oscar smiled at him, but Zolf was looking at the men gathered by the ravine opening. It was rather early, they had all had their breakfast, and as far as everyone knew they were here to discuss the mystery. Oscar smiled wider and judged it time to start.

“I sent Commander Barnes here to investigate a mystery,” he started, and all eyes turned to him. “And I’ve heard all your theories about murderers and accidents and taking advantage of situations, but it is quite obvious we are dealing with a curse.” Barnes nodded solemnly, Tjelvar looked thoughtful. Carter went a lovely kobold red. Keystone just looked like he was waiting for what came next, without any judgement. What a refreshing character. 

“The likelihood of simultaneous murderous impulses happening in two groups of people with no connections between them is so small as to be instantly dismissed. The accidents befalling Mr. Stannard and Dr. Webb require only the slightest investigation to be determined as definite accidents, and yet the coincidence in time with Dr. Arash cannot be dismissed. As for the museum group, there is certainly a case to be made for Mr. Cham dispatching his wife and his rival, but there is no earthly reason why he would also murder the woman he sought to make his mistress, or the other members of faculty who has now fallen ill. Hence, it is a curse.”

“Maybe he got a taste for killing and wanted to do more,” Carter suggested valiantly. Oscar smirked.

“Unlikely, but somewhat inspired. And also impossible from his sickbed. No, we are looking at a curse, as I was certain of even before my arrival. Albeit an unusual one, from all of your accounts. Mr. Stornssnasson?”

“Yes, ah, tomb curses are normally designed to be a warning as well as a punishment, so that it will be protected from future attempts at robbery as well as eliminating the current threat. A curse that comes into effect such a long time later than the exposure, and with such varied effects - I’ve never seen anything like that. Which is why it seemed unlikely.”

“Add to that,” interjected Carter, “there are no actual tombs that we have found yet in Hetepu, and so it’s hard to imagine that they would have been disturbed by any visitors. At least that we wouldn’t notice.”

“Ah, but that was your first wrong assumption. It’s not a tomb curse,” said Oscar. “It’s not even a curse, exactly.” There were several mutterings from Carter and Stornsnasson, while Barnes kept making notes and Keystone kept looking attentive. Oscar remained silent for a beat - at heart, he was a performer, and he wanted his audience to be on the edge of their seats. Metaphorically, at least. He saw Zolf roll his eyes good-naturedly, and waited until they were silent and looking at him again. 

“I believe this is as much a blessing as a curse,” he said, and handed a sheet of paper over to Stornsnasson. He and Carter immediately put their heads together to study it. 

“So it is,” Stornsnasson said. “The wording is fairly standard, something along the lines of 

_ O inhabitants of Hetepu may you live, prosper and be healthy _

_ As for any man who will do damage against this town, He will fall to the rage of Hapi. _

Where did you find this inscription? We haven’t been able to find any.”

“I suggest you ask Mr. Keystone,” Oscar smiled. Keystone looked surprised.

“What? I haven’t found anything?”

“Certainly you have, Mr. Keystone. You showed me just yesterday.”

“Oh, you mean the big one!” Keystone exclaimed happily, and Oscar nodded. “But I didn’t find that, it was there all along.”

“These things often are, Mr. Keystone. And I suspect you were the only one who took the time to really look at what’s there, rather than at what you expected to see. Sometimes, and I realise this can seem like an unusual sentiment coming from yours truly, a simple approach is better. Now, if you care to show Mr. Stornsnasson and Mr. Carter, I’ll accompany Commander Barnes to the kitchen to fetch some tea. I’ll be right back, I’m sure you gentlemen will have questions.”

***

When Oscar had drunk his tea and Carter had been in turn outraged, impressed, and delighted, and Stornsnasson had patted Keystone on the shoulder so many times that a less robust man’s arm might have fallen off, they turned back to him. 

“I’m not sure how that curse works though,” Barnes asked. “You’ve said Hapi was a local god back then, but I didn’t think there were any egyptian gods worshipped anymore. So how did the curse work?”

“Oh, some worship still happens, I’m sure,” Stornsnasson started, “but we can safely assume that another god’s domain covers the one Hapi used to rule.”

“Hapi, Hapi,” mumbled Carter. “God of the Nile? So that would be Achelous?”

“Actually, the water in the rivers in this area can have quite a high saline component, so the domain of Hapi would fall under Poseidon, not Achelous," said Stornsnasson. Without turning his head, Oscar recognised the thumping sound behind him as Zolf gently banging his head on the rock wall. “And Poseidon can be quite a vengeful god, so I would imagine any curses in his domain would be more potent rather than less, as one might expect from a transferred domain. Indeed, the original blessing might well have been ment as a warning, but in Poseidon’s school of thought it would be a threat. We can perhaps assume that the ones who were cursed had ill intentions towards the site …”

Oscar tuned out what promised to be a long academic discussion and leaned back in his chair. 

***

After dinner, Oscar was enjoying his coffee in the last rays of the sun when he was approached by Keystone. The man had none of his usual charisma on display, and rather looked small and dejected. Oscar found himself feeling sorry for him. He liked him quite a bit, he was charming and straightforward and all around refreshing company after being surrounded by plotting Harlequins and the bureaucrats of Cairo for months. 

“How can I help you, Mr. Keystone,” he asked without looking up.

“Oh! I just. I - I wanted to ask you something, Mr. Wilde. Some advice.” Oscar waved his hand for him to carry on, he was in a good mood and pleased with the world in general. “I would like to - I want to ask Tjelvar if - “ Keystone seemed incapable of continuing, so Oscar took pity on him.

“You want to engage in a serious relationship with him,” he stated. Keystone nodded, relieved.

“Exactly! How did you know?” Oscar sighed, and finally looked up at him. He really was an amazingly gorgeous man. Almost a pity he was committed to Zolf himself. Almost. 

“Mr. Keystone, the entire camp knows. They know you are in love with him. They know he is in love with you. Anyone who has ever been in your presence knows. Moreover, I believe there is a book running with bets on when you will finally make the move, as it were. And which one of you will be the one to take the first step.” Keystone stood with his mouth open. Still beautiful, even when gaping like a fish. And then he started laughing. All his charisma and joy and beauty was on full display, and Oscar would have sworn there were extra beams of sunlight shining on him, enhancing the gold of his hair and the sparkle in his eyes. 

“He’s in love with me? Are you sure?”

“I’m quite sure, Mr. Keystone. And if you were to go over to him, drag him outside his tent and tell him how you feel, perhaps right now, I believe you would make a young lady named Helena quite wealthy.” 

Keystone laughed again and bounced away. Oscar could see several curious gazes follow him as he went into Stornsnasson’s tent and dragged him out into the sunshine. He couldn’t see from this distance what Keystone was saying, but he could easily see his happy smile, and the dark blush on Stornsnasson’s ears, and then Keystone was leaning in to gently kiss Stornsnasson - who proceeded to dip Keystone backwards like it was the cover of one of Zolf’s romance novels. The sun sparkled around them as if Apollo himself was filled with joy, and Oscar tilted his head back to smile up at the evening sun.

“Never took you for such a sappy bastard,” said a gruff voice behind him. 

“Oh Zolf, as you well know, I am the sappiest bastard for miles.”

“Yeah, I know,” Zolf grinned and took his hand, kissing his knuckles one by one. “You don’t usually show it, though.” Oscar shrugged.

“I like them,” he said. “I like Keystone in particular. He’s - good. Uncomplicated.”

“And gorgeous.”

“Not as gorgeous as you,” said Oscar, with absolute sincerity. Zolf blushed beautifully. 

***

Oscar would have liked to stay a while in Hetepu, but Zolf soon got uneasy about the protection of Poseidon, and so they got ready to leave after just a few days. Before he got back on his camel, Oscar pulled Carter aside.

“Carter - Howard. I have to tell you I sincerely hope you can work things out with Barnes.” Carter opened his mouth, but no words came out, and Oscar continued. “I have spoken with him about cutting back on his missions, and I am entirely fine with that. He wants to have Hetepu as his base as long as you’re here, and I’m fine with that too. I know you have some resentment for me, and I’m not sure why, but we worked well together once. So please believe me when I say you are well suited, and you make him happy. Best of luck.” Oscar turned on his heel and mounted his camel. When he turned back, he saw Barnes taking hold of Carter’s hand, and further away, Keystone was waving goodbye, one arm around Stornsnasson’s waist. 

As they entered the ravine, he turned to Zolf.

“I think I’m quitting the Harlequins,” he said. 

“Good,” said Zolf. “You were getting bored. What do you want to do?”

“I’ve always wanted to show you Ireland.”

**Author's Note:**

> The loveliest artwork in the world is made by the amazing Panda. You can find her on ao3 at https://archiveofourown.org/users/areyouokaypanda/pseuds/areyouokaypanda or on twitter @areyouokaypanda if you want to see more of her work - and you absolutely should!
> 
> Thank you mods for all your hard work: this has been a ride and a half, and I can't wait for the next one.


End file.
